Upon the organization's founding, Harrington and the socialist feminist author Barbara Ehrenreich were elected co-chairs. After the merger, the DSA became the largest socialist organization in the United States, with a membership of approximately 5,000 ex-DSOC members and 1,000 ex-NAM members.[15]
From 2015 to 2021, DSA membership increased 15-fold from 6,200 after Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, the surprise presidential victory of Donald Trump, the 2018 election of DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the COVID-19 pandemic.[16][17][18] Membership peaked at 95,000 in 2021, when the organization had 239 local chapters,[15][19] before declining to 77,575 members by August 2023.[20] The organization gained at least 2,400 new dues-paying members from October 2023 to February 2024 due to its pro-Palestinian stance during the Israel-Hamas war.[21] Between 2013 and 2017, the median age of its membership decreased from 68 to 33,[22] leading some, such as Holly Otterbein of Philadelphia, to credit the organization for the rise of millennial socialism.[23]
The red rose is part of the official DSA logo.[53] It was drawn from the logo of the DSOC, its precursor organization, and previously of the Socialist International, which shows a stylized fist clenching a red rose, the fist replaced by a biracial handshake pertaining to the DSA's staunch anti-racism.[54][55] The fist and rose logo was originally designed for the French Socialist Party in 1969.[56]
In the early 1980s, the DSOC's estimated membership was 5,000, but after its merger with the NAM and subsequent founding of the DSA,[60] the new organization's membership grew to an estimated 7,000 in 1987.[61]
The DSA's membership greatly increased following Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, the presidential victory of Donald Trump, the 2018 election of DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the COVID-19 pandemic.[16][17][18] In May 2020, organizers said the DSA had attracted about 10,000 new members since March of that year. According to DSA leaders, after Sanders dropped out of the 2020 presidential race in April, many supporters previously aligned with his campaign moved over to the DSA.[18] Membership peaked at 95,000 in 2021, when the organization had 239 local chapters,[15][19] before declining to 77,575 by August 2023, largely from lapsed dues.[20] The organization has gained at least 2,400 new dues-paying members since October 2023 due to its pro-Palestinian stance during the Israel-Hamas war.[21]
Between 2013 and 2017, the median age of its membership decreased from 68 to 33.[21]
Publications
The DSA publishes Democratic Left and Socialist Forum, quarterly magazines of news, analysis, and internal debate.[62][63]Democratic Left continues in an uninterrupted run from the original Newsletter of the Democratic Left published by the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, a DSA predecessor, since its establishment in 1973.[citation needed] Left-wing quarterly magazine Jacobin often aligns with DSA, although they are not affiliated.[64] In 2014, Jacobin's founder and then-editor Bhaskar Sunkara, a DSA member, praised DSA founder Michael Harrington, calling him "very underrated as a popularizer of Marxist thought".[65] Caucuses within DSA often have their own publications to spread their particular views within and outside the organization, such as The Call,[66] Reform and Revolution,[67] Partisan Magazine,[68] and Light and Air.[69]
The DSA experienced a significant ideological shift after 2016, with an influx of younger members who helped push the organization toward anti-Zionism and support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements. This shift brought in a broader array of ideologies than the DSA's original focus on reformist and popular front strategies.[77][78][79]
During the 2023 DSA National Convention, Marxist and revolutionary socialist factions won a majority of seats on the DSA's 2023–2025 National Political Committee, marking a further shift to the left.[6][80][81]
Economy
The dominant position in DSA regards the abolition of capitalism and the realization of socialism as a long-term goal, therefore the organization focuses its immediate political energies on reforms within capitalism that empower working people while decreasing the power of corporations.[82][83][84][85]
We believe there are many avenues that feed into the democratic road to socialism. Our vision pushes further than historic social democracy and leaves behind authoritarian visions of socialism in the dustbin of history.
— Democratic Socialists of America
Welfare policy
A 2009 leaflet detailing the group's ideas, "What is Democratic Socialism?", states that "no country has fully instituted democratic socialism". Nonetheless, according to the DSA, there are lessons to be learned from "the comprehensive welfare state maintained by the Swedes, from Canada's national healthcare system, France's nationwide childcare program, and Nicaragua's literacy programs".[87] The DSA lauds the "tremendous prosperity and relative economic equality" established by the social democratic parties of Scandinavia and parts of Western Europe, while the organization maintains its goal to move beyond capitalism entirely.[87][86]
DSA's "2024 Workers Deserve More Program" lists policies such as Medicare for All, "Universal healthcare with no premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. Guarantees for reproductive and gender-affirming care", "tuition-free public higher education with no out-of-pocket cost for room and board", cancellation of all student loan debt, universal rent control and the guaranteed right to counsel for all tenants, quality multi-income social housing, expansive paid family leave for all workers, and free public universal childcare and pre-K.[24]
Labor
The DSA has been involved in a variety of labor organizing campaigns. In 2020, the DSA and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America founded the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) to "help workers organize" by developing training programs and connecting labor organizers with appropriate resources.[88][89][90]Jacobin attributed various labor organizing drive and union election victories to the assistance of EWOC organizers.[88] The DSA has frequently adopted the strategy of getting socialists hired in key occupations to establish new unions or reform caucuses within existing unions.[91]
In October 2023, the University of Oregon's YDSA chapter led a campaign for the nation's largest undergraduate labor union campaign, and successfully unionized 4,900 student workers.[94][95][96][97]
Environment
DSA supports the implementation of a Green New Deal, including "Massive public investment to transition away from fossil fuels toward a green and sustainable economy. Guaranteed support for workers in the fossil fuel industry, massive infrastructure and jobs programs, and public ownership over major transportation and energy infrastructure and natural resources."[24]
Build Public Renewables Act campaign
In late 2019, the New York City DSA chapter established the Public Power NY Coalition, aimed at expanding public renewable energy in collaboration with organized labor and DSA members in the New York state legislature.[29] According to campaign organizer Ashley Dawson, the Coalition was formed after private utility company Consolidated Edison increased electricity prices; it was also concerned about Consolidated Edison's fossil fuel lobbying, its failure to invest in upgrading its energy infrastructure, and respiratory illnesses caused by pollution in low-income and minority neighborhoods.[29]
In May 2023, the DSA claimed that the four-year organizing campaign led by New York state chapters enabled the BPRA to pass.[101][29] DSA and progressive media called it "the biggest Green New Deal victory in U.S. history" due to its provisions for public renewable energy, unionized public jobs, electricity price discounts, and closing natural gas plants.[100][101][102][103][6]
Some have criticized the New York Power Authority for lack of transparency around progress toward the goals of the BPRA, and for hiring McKinsey & Company to implement the plan, which advocates have criticized for corruption and alleged bias for private development.[104]
Degrowth
Though it is controversial within the organization, some DSA members support degrowth. In 2023, DSA's International Committee sent a delegate to the 9th International Degrowth Conference in Zagreb, Croatia.[105] In 2024, YDSA added language to its platform that supports degrowth.[106]
In the 1990s, the DSA Fund directed resources to the Prison Moratorium Project led by the youth section of DSA, which aimed to divest from private prisons and contributed to Sodexo partially divesting from them.[110]
The organization was a member of the Socialist International from 1982 to 2017. A majority of delegates at the 2017 DSA National Convention voted to leave the International due to its alleged support for neoliberal economic policies.[9] Delegates at the 2021 DSA National Convention voted to apply to join the São Paulo Forum,[10] and DSA became an Associate Member organization in 2023.[11] Delegates at the August 2023 DSA National Convention voted for the organization to join the Progressive International, and DSA became an official member in October 2023.[111][112]
DSA originally supported Israel and Zionism. When the United Nations passed Resolution 3379 in 1975, which called Zionism a form of racism, Harrington called it a "preposterous charge" that "drain[ed] the concept of racism of any serious meaning."[113] Former DSA vice-chair Jo-Ann Mort has said the group was formerly "the place to go on the left if you were a socialist and you were pro-Israel".[78]
In 2021, the DSA attracted criticism from the socialist left due to a vote by U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, an elected member of DSA at the time, in favor of providing $1 billion in additional annual aid to Israel, in violation of DSA's anti-Zionist and pro-BDS platform.[115][116][117][118][6] Bowman was also criticized for meeting with Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett on a trip to Israel organized by the liberal Zionist lobby group J Street.[115][118][117]
In February 2022, Bowman removed his sponsorship of the Israeli Relations Normalization Act, which some NPC members considered a win from engaging with Bowman's office.[119] In April 2023, Bowman co-led a letter to President Joe Biden with Senator Bernie Sanders urging a probe into the use of U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians.[120][121] The letter called for restricting $3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel and "immediate action to prevent the further loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives".[120]
In July 2023, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, 412–9, declaring that "The State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state, Congress rejects all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia, and the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel."[122] Among those voting against the resolution were DSA members Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Bush, and Bowman, who each cited the Israeli government's human rights abuses against Palestinians.[122]
On October 7, 2023, DSA published a statement saying Hamas's attack that day was the direct result of Israel's "apartheid regime". It went on to condemn all civilian casualties, reaffirm its stance against the occupation of Palestinian territory and support for Palestinian statehood, call for an end to U.S. financial support to the State of Israel, and spotlight an initiative by DSA-endorsed New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani that would end nonprofit status for organizations funding Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.[123] The same day, Cori Bush released a statement mourning "the over 250 Israeli and 230 Palestinian lives that have been lost today",[124] criticizing Israel's military response to the attack,[125] and calling for "ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid".[126] On October 8, Rashida Tlaib released a statement that likewise grieved "the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day", called for lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip and ending Israeli occupation and apartheid, and cited U.S. government support for Israel as part of the problem.[127] DSA-endorsed members of Congress—Bush, Tlaib, and Ocasio-Cortez—have all called the State of Israel an apartheid regime, citing human rights abuses against Palestinians.[122]
On October 8, the New York City DSA chapter promoted a pro-Palestine rally in Times Square.[132] Several New York politicians condemned the rally for statements at the event by Party for Socialism and Liberation member Eugene Puryear mocking the victims of the Re'im music festival massacre and for an unidentified attendee displaying a swastika on a cellphone.[133][134][135] The DSA later distanced itself from the rally,[135][136] as did Ocasio-Cortez.[137] Representative Jamaal Bowman confirmed in light of the rally that he had let his DSA membership expire in 2022.[138] In the days after the rally, some socialist magazines such as Jacobin published editorials disputing negative characterizations of DSA, arguing that mainstream media outlets had falsely accused it of supporting Hamas and organizing the rally.[139] Jewish members of DSA denounced Mayor Eric Adams for falsely[135][140] accusing the DSA of "carrying swastikas and calling for the extermination of Jewish people", calling the accusation "horrific defamation".[141] Progressives outside of DSA as well as opponents of the organization similarly deemed Adams's comments inappropriate and false.[135][140] In addition to denouncing Adams's comments, Abby Stein wrote disapprovingly in the New York Daily News about other New York politicians, such as Ritchie Torres and Nicole Malliotakis.[140]
On October 16, Bush and Tlaib introduced a congressional resolution calling on the Biden administration to call for deescalation and ceasefire in the conflict, and the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.[145][146][147][127] Ocasio-Cortez was also an initial co-sponsor.[146]
On November 7, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 234–188 to censure Rep. Tlaib for her statements on the war and her use of the phrase "from the river to the sea" to call for a binational one-state solution.[151]
On November 15, JVP, DSA, and IfNotNow held a candlelight vigil and protested at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Washington, DC to call for a ceasefire in Gaza during a fundraiser attended by members of Congress.[152][153][154] The vigil and protest ended in U.S. Capitol Police clashing with protestors who were "illegally and violently protesting" at the building, according to police, injuring 90 protestors and 6 police officers.[152][154] Congressmen Representative Brad Sherman and Senator Marco Rubio claimed the protestors were violent and "pro-Hamas."[155]
From November 29 to December 2, DSA officially joined a coalition led by the Adalah Justice Project to carry out a five-day hunger strike outside the White House, with DSA members including New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Michigan State Representative Abraham Aiyash, Palestinian writer Sumaya Awad, actress Cynthia Nixon, and then-interim DSA chair Ashik Siddique participating in the strike.[156][157][158][159][160][161] Five members of Congress joined the strikers to speak in support on November 29, including Bush and Tlaib.[159][160][161][162][163]
Throughout 2024, DSA led or endorsed several state-level Uncommitted campaigns, and YDSA chapters led or supported encampment organizing on university campuses.
On February 26, 2022, the DSA issued a statement condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine while arguing that the U.S. and NATO provoked Russia.[164] The statement called for "diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis" and for the U.S. to withdraw from NATO and "end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict".[165][166] Many Democratic members of Congress, including politicians affiliated with the DSA, criticized this statement,[165][164] with some calling it "tone-deaf".[166] Others defended the statement and criticized the responses from mainstream media and politicians attacking the organization.[167][168] According to New York, "The suggestion that the U.S. was somehow to blame for Vladimir Putin's war of aggression was seized on by the DSA's critics across the ideological spectrum—from the New York Post to Democratic congressional candidate Max Rose—while setting off a round of recriminations and counterstatements among American leftists."[165]
Historically, the DSA was associated with Michael Harrington's position that "the left wing of realism is found today in the Democratic Party". In its early years, the DSA opposed Republican presidential candidates by giving critical support to Democratic nominees like Walter Mondale in 1984.[169] In 1988, the DSA enthusiastically supported Jesse Jackson's second presidential campaign.[170] Since 1995, the DSA's position on American electoral politics has been that "democratic socialists reject an either-or approach to electoral coalition building, focused solely on a new party or on realignment within the Democratic Party".[171] During the 1990s, the DSA gave the Clinton administration an overall rating of C−, "less than satisfactory".[172]
In the early 2000s, the DSA was critical of the Democratic Party leadership, which it argues is corporate-funded.[173] The organization has stated:[174]
Much of progressive, independent political action will continue to occur in Democratic Party primaries in support of candidates who represent a broad progressive coalition. In such instances, democratic socialists will support coalitional campaigns based on labor, women, people of color and other potentially anti-corporate elements.
Electoral tactics are only a means for democratic socialists; the building of a powerful anti-corporate coalition is the end.
In recent years, the DSA's stated long-term goal has been to form an independent workers' party, while in the meantime it adopts a "proto-party" strategy called the "dirty break".[175] DSA's elected leadership has often seen running in Democratic Party primary elections, rather than immediately forming a third party, as necessary for socialist visibility and electoral victories while the organization builds the resources for a viable workers' party.[175] DSA also developed a stricter endorsement policy since 2016, endorsing only democratic socialists.[176]
In 2004, the organization backed John Kerry after he won the Democratic nomination. In its official magazine, the DSA's political action committee said that Kerry's defeat would be taken as a defeat of the mainstream left, but that "a Kerry victory will let us press onward, with progressives aggressively pressuring an administration that owed its victory to democratic mobilization from below."[180] The only resolution on upcoming elections at the DSA's 2005 convention focused on Bernie Sanders's independent campaign for the U.S. Senate in Vermont.[181] The organization's 2007 convention in Atlanta featured record-breaking attendance and more participation by the organization's youth wing. Sanders gave the keynote address.[182]
In 2008, the DSA supported Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in his race against Republican nominee John McCain. In an article in the March 24 edition of The Nation, DSA members Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Fletcher Jr., along with Tom Hayden and Danny Glover, announced the formation of Progressives for Obama,[183] arguing that Obama was the most progressive viable Democratic presidential candidate since Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.[183] Following Obama's election, many on the political right[184] began to allege that his administration's policies were "socialistic", a claim the DSA and the Obama administration both rejected. The claim led DSA National Director Frank Llewellyn to declare that "over the past 12 months, the Democratic Socialists of America has received more media attention than it has over the past 12 years".[185]
In the 2016 presidential election, the DSA endorsed Sanders for president. Sanders's candidacy prompted a surge in DSA membership among young voters, bringing a major shift in the organization's federal endorsements toward a stricter line.[186] After Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primaries, the DSA called for Republican nominee Donald Trump's defeat, but did not officially endorse Clinton.[187]
In 2020, the DSA endorsed Sanders for president again after an advisory poll reported 76% of the participating membership approved his endorsement,[188] despite objections from part of the membership about Sanders's statements on, among other topics, slavery reparations.[189] No other candidates were included in the poll. After Sanders dropped out in April 2020, the DSA explicitly did not endorse the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.[190] Two DSA chapters (Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City) voted to endorse Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins.[191] In May 2020, 91 "founders, officers and activists" of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s criticized the DSA's failure to endorse Biden in an open letter "to the New New Left From the Old New Left" published in The Nation.[192] Daniel Finn of Jacobin responded that in invoking the specter of fascism under a second-term Trump, the former SDSers were engaging in "melodramatic hyperbole", and that climate change was not an issue that could wait until 2024 or 2028. "No socialist", he argued, "who campaigned for Bernie Sanders should feel guilty about abandoning [the Democrats] and concentrating on building a movement that is the only real hope for the planet's future".[193]
In 2024, DSA endorsed a multitude of state-level Uncommitted campaigns in the Democratic primaries to protest the Biden administration's stance on the Israel–Hamas war. DSA made no endorsement in the 2024 general presidential race. DSA members expressed split views on West's campaign despite widespread admiration for him, with some citing controversies within the People's Party or the potential for a spoiler effect, and others arguing the campaign could be an opportunity to make socialist ideas more visible.[194][195][197] Others advocated voting for other third-party candidates, such as Claudia De la Cruz of the Party for Socialism and Liberation or Jill Stein of the Green Party. Some supported voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, particularly in swing states, and traveled to swing states to knock doors for her, as they saw defeating Trump as necessary to prevent the escalation of mass deportations, a federal abortion ban, Israel “finishing the job” in Gaza, attacks on queer and trans people, intense repression of the left, and a sharp turn to authoritarianism.[198]
Ocasio-Cortez's victory and the subsequent publicity for the DSA led more than 1,000 new members to join the organization the next day, approximately 35 times the daily average.[206]
In November 2022, Greg Casar[a] was the fifth DSA member jointly elected to the House, though he was not endorsed due to his stances on Palestine.[217] The next year, Bowman announced that he had stopped paying his membership dues,[218] and Shri Thanedar, who had quietly joined the organization, was expelled for having substantial disagreement with its principles.[219][220] But in May 2024, Bowman rejoined the organization and was endorsed by its New York City chapter.[221][46] This came as he faced a strong primary challenge from George Latimer, who was endorsed by many pro-Israel lobby groups.[222][223] In June 2024, Bowman lost the primary to Latimer.[224] In July 2024, the DSA's National Political Committee (NPC)'s endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez was revoked due to her stances on Palestine, though the New York City DSA chapter rejected the NPC's conditions for her endorsement; Ocasio-Cortez is endorsed locally by the NYC-DSA chapter, but does not have the national endorsement.[47] In August 2024, Cori Bush lost the Democratic primary election for her seat to Wesley Bell.[225]
State and local elections
In the United States elections of 2017, DSA endorsed 15 candidates for office, with the highest position gained being that of Lee J. Carter in the Virginia House of Delegates.[226] DSA members won 15 electoral offices in 13 states, bringing the total to 35 (having changed its electoral strategy at its national convention, the DSA had anticipated picking up approximately five seats)[227][228] 56% of the DSA members who ran in this election cycle won, compared to 20% in 2016.[228] These results encouraged dozens more DSA members to run for office in the 2018 elections.[229]
In March 2021, an all-DSA leadership of a state Democratic party was elected for the first time in its history, sweeping the leadership of the Nevada Democratic Party.[266][267] After the elections, the entire Nevada Democratic Party staff resigned.[268] On March 4, 2023, a "unity" slate of candidates was elected, ending DSA leadership of the party.[269] In February 2023, the DSA's Las Vegas chapter said that communication between the slate and the chapter had faltered and the slate had become increasingly moderate over its term despite initial statements in favor of democratic socialist causes. From this experience, the chapter wrote in opposition to both entryism in the Democratic Party and solely focusing on electoral organizing as formidable strategies for socialist organizers:[270]
This is our lesson, and we hope socialists everywhere will pay close attention: the Democratic Party is a dead end. It is a "party" in name only; truly, it is simply a tangled web of dark money and mega-donors, cynical consultants, and lapdog politicians. ... We don't want milquetoast progressive reformist-reforms; we want socialism. We won't get it by playing the DNC's games, and we won't get it by being a mildly obnoxious thorn in their side, either. Our task is to out-organize them entirely, and not merely within the confines of the voting booth.
At the 2023 DSA National Convention, delegates declared school board elections to be an electoral priority.[6][274]Jacobin and the New York Post both noted the success of DSA candidates in school board elections in at least 15 states since 2021 from left- and right-wing perspectives, respectively, including that such candidates ran on supporting transgender rights, fighting systemic racism, and supporting teachers' unions and funding for public education.[274][275]
^Harrington, Michael (April 1981). "Marxism and Democracy". Praxis International. Retrieved December 26, 2024.
^Barclay, Bill (March 30, 2021). "The Dangers of Factionalism in DSA". In These Times. Retrieved December 26, 2024. Many in the original leadership of DSA identified as Marxists. Michael Harrington, one of our two national co-chairs and our most prominent leader at the time of DSA's founding, wrote a number of widely read books in which he made a case for Marx's vision of socialism as democratic. Others of us who did not call ourselves Marxists never considered that they should be excluded from DSA.
^ abcWoodward, Alex (October 21, 2023). "More than 100 arrested at protest calling for ceasefire, aid for Gaza". The Independent. Retrieved October 22, 2023. More than 3,000 people marched in heavy rain from Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan to the office of US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, where they condemned the killings of Palestinians and Israelis and demanded she and other members of Congress support a ceasefire resolution. ... New York State Senator Jabari Brisport was among those arrested. In a video he shared on social media, the senator chants "free Palestine" as he stands in a handcuffed group behind a line of NYPD officers.
^Dorothy Healey and Maurice Isserman, Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; pp. 245–249.
^O'Rourke, William (1993). "L: Michael Harrington". Signs of the literary times: Essays, reviews, profiles, 1970–1992. The Margins of Literature (SUNY Series). SUNY Press. pp. 195–196. ISBN0-7914-1681-X.
^Weaver, Adam (August 5, 2017). "A Turning Point on the Left? Libertarian Caucus Debuts at Democratic Socialist Conference". Truthout. Retrieved July 17, 2023. In addition, many are viewing the DSA convention this week in Chicago as a key turning point within the organization. Coming out of the DSA is a new caucus called the Libertarian Socialist Caucus. The LSC promotes a vision of 'libertarian socialism' ...
^"Rise of the democratic socialists". The Week. July 30, 2018. Archived from the original on April 28, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2019. DSA's national platform calls for abolishing capitalism
^Burke, Kerry; Quigley, Liam (October 21, 2023). "Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gather in Midtown Manhattan". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 22, 2023. Democratic Socialists of America's New York City chapter helped organize the demonstration, calling on New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to demand a ceasefire in the conflict.
^ abHayden, Tom; Ehrenreich, Barbara; Fletcher, Bill Jr.; Glover, Danny (March 25, 2008). "Progressives for Obama". The Nation. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^Democratic Left Editorial Team (Winter 2020). "Chapter and Verse: DSA specialty: Toppling incumbents". Retrieved January 5, 2021. At least 48 DSA members were on the ballot this November, and at least 36 won office, earning more than 3.1 million votes for socialist candidates altogether.
^"Meg Gorman for Congress". www.facebook.com. Retrieved October 13, 2020. I'm beyond proud to receive the endorsement of Chattanooga Democratic Socialists of America.
^Bohannon, Molly. "Congressman Leaves Democratic Socialists Of America For Promoting Pro-Palestinian Rally After Hamas Attack". Forbes. Retrieved October 17, 2023. A spokesperson for the Detroit chapter of DSA told Forbes in a statement that Thanedar's "views are not—and have never been—representative of Detroit DSA." Thanedar was expelled from the chapter last month "due to his support of the far right, violent, Islamophobic Modi regime in India," the spokesperson said.
^Neavling, Steve. "Thanedar was a harsh critic of Israel before becoming an outspoken defender". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved October 17, 2023. The Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America fired back at Thanedar, saying he can't renounce his membership because he was removed from the local group on Sept. 17.
^"Spring 2020 Voter Guide". Madison Area Dsa – Democratic Socialists of America. March 31, 2020. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 28, 2020.